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Brian Eno

Brian Eno

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Brian Eno's Discreet Music

Review by Miles, New Musical Express, 3 January 1976

EXPERIMENTAL AND AVANT-GARDE music, by its very nature, exists mainly in the fringe area of private pressings, such as the Musica or George Avakian productions ...

Another Glam World: Brian Eno’s Adventures in Roxy Music

Interview by Djuna Parnes, Rock's Backpages, June 2001

DP: What does the phrase "Glam Rock" mean to you? ...

Audio interviews

Brian Eno (1992)

Interview by Mark Sinker, Rock's Backpages audio, Fall 1992

Pop's intellectual-in-chief on youth and cultural identity; the value of pretence and pretension; useful irony, contingency, and the accident of joining Roxy Music; problems of language; minimalism and the value of the recording studio; what "culture" means; deadlines; contributing to the cultural conversation; the importance of topicality; false impositions of cultural values; reading and hearing; criticism and empathy.

File format: mp3; file size: 86.9mb, interview length: 1h 30' 28" sound quality: ***

Brian Eno (1998)

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 13 January 1998

Eno talks about the early days of Roxy Music; the band's intersection with Glam; the impact of David Bowie; androgyny and flamboyance; leaving Roxy, and setting out on his solo career.

File format: mp3; file size: 33.5mb, interview length: 36' 36" sound quality: ** (phoner)

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A Flight of Fantasy: Eno

Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 3 February 1973

ENO'S PLAYBOY bachelor flat in mystical Maida Vale possesses a decor that is God's own gift to a journalist caught for a good opening paragraph. ...

Under the Influence: Eno of Roxy

Interview by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 10 March 1973

Velvets & Beethoven ...

Eno: Of Launderettes And Lizard Girls

Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 28 July 1973

...and things that go bump in Ladbroke Grove. Nick Kent stakes out Eno's closet ...

Roxy Split...

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 28 July 1973

"I was cramping Eno's style. Two non-musicians in a band is one too many. I think he'll do very well by himself" — BRYAN FERRY ...

Brian Eno: Happiness Is A Warm Jet

Report by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 13 October 1973

...BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE LATEST RECORDED WORK OF MR. BRIAN ENO, LATE OF ROXY MUSIC, AND FEATURING BLANK FRANK, FRIEND OF THE MASSIVE MASSIMO ...

Fripp and Eno: No Pussyfooting (HELP)

Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 27 October 1973

Sex of one, Eno of the other ...

Eno

Press Release by Richard Cromelin, Island Records, 1974

There isOne artNo moreNo lessTo doAll thingsWith art-Lessness– Piet Hein ...

Eno: Blank Frank — the Messenger of Doom

Interview by Caroline Boucher, Disc, 2 February 1974

The initials B.F. spell... think about it. Words by Caroline Boucher ...

Everything You'd Rather Not Know About Eno

Interview by Chrissie Hynde, New Musical Express, 2 February 1974

IT WAS WITH a certain apprehensive curiosity that I first noticed the brown lace-up shoes. He displayed a normalcy that I just couldn't trust. After ...

Eno: Here Come The Warm Jets (Island ILPS 9628)

Review by Martin Hayman, Sounds, 16 February 1974

Iron Bean's nut cracker ...

Eno: Here Come The Warm Jets (Island ILPS 9268, £2.30) ****

Review by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 23 February 1974

I WAS BEGINNING to wonder if the Mad Mekon Of The Moog would ever justify the acres of coverage he's had since he left Roxy ...

Eno & the Winkies: Civic Hall, Guildford

Live Review by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 2 March 1974

BEFORE HIS Guildford concert with the Winkies last Wednesday, Eno told me: "I've tried rearranging the running order of the songs in all sorts of ...

Eno, the Winkies: Greyhound, Croydon, London

Live Review by James Johnson, New Musical Express, 2 March 1974

IN THE CAR travelling back to London, Eno was making some excuses. The acoustics of the hall were terrible, he said, and the heat put ...

Eno: "I'm a Born Thief"

Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 2 March 1974

... or "Eno helps digest other people's music". Fox-Cumming gets on earful of warm jets. ...

Eno and John Cale: The Wild Bunch

Interview by Martin Hayman, Sounds, 18 May 1974

Martin Hayman jumps into the Tardis, goes into the future with typewriter over his shoulder and ends up on the beach with Eno, Phil Manzanera and ...

Kevin Ayers, John Cale, Nico, Eno: Rainbow Theatre, London

Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 8 June 1974

Ayers puts the A in ACNE ...

Bryan Ferry: Another Time, Another Place; Eno: Here Come The Warm Jets

Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, August 1974

AS EXPECTED, Eno's first solo album is a sonically innovative and adventurous thing, boldly experimental in its employment of phasing, drones, repetition, shifting of layers, ...

Kevin Ayers/John Cale/Eno/Nico: June 1, 1974 (Island)

Review by Ira Robbins, Zoo World, 10 October 1974

LIVE ALBUMS have become an abundant nuisance which bands seem to feel an obligation to produce every few years, often with no redeeming content. The ...

Eno Music: The Roxy Rebellion

Profile and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, November 1974

"The reason I was attracted to the band in the first place was the contradiction of having someone like Eno and someone like Bryan in ...

Kevin Ayers, John Cale, Nico & Eno: June 1,1974 (Island)

Review and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Creem, December 1974

Kevin Ayers, John Cale, Nico, Eno & the Soporifics: The Inmates Have Taken Over ...

ANNOUNCEMENT: Texans like steak, oil-wells, large hats and Eno…

Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 7 December 1974

WELL, I SUPPOSE we should start as we intend to continue. So come along, Eno, how does it feel to be just regarded as Good ...

Island Records: Treasure Island

Profile by Lenny Kaye, Hit Parader, January 1975

GIVEN THE commercial restrictions of the business we call music, it is the rare record company that is willing to lay itself on the line ...

Roxy Music: Country Life (Atlantic)/Eno: Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (Island)

Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, March 1975

WOMEN, ON Roxy Music covers, are like plants: lush vegetation, only more so. Unlike the reclining femme fatale on the cover of Stranded, who I've ...

Eno: Another Green World

Review by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, April 1975

UP UNTIL THE moment the temporary editor of this august journal telephoned to apprise me that he'd just been in a terrible automobile accident in ...

Eno: The Monkey Wrench Of Rock Creates Happy Accidents On Tiger Mt.

Profile and Interview by Stephen Demorest, Circus, April 1975

One day Eno is going to formulate a theory that will make music melt out of the North Pole (maybe he'll do it with mirrors), ...

Robert Fripp: Retiring Fripp

Interview by Jon Tiven, International Musician & Recording World, June 1975

Fripp's King Crimson brought a new meaning to the word "tight". For a short time the band represented a pinnacle of British rock achievement. Since ...

Fripp & Eno: Palladium, London

Live Review by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 14 June 1975

"IT'S NOT just an ordinary loop system. In fact, it's very complex. I invented it. Why don't you come and see me tomorrow and I'll ...

Eno: Another Green World (Island)

Review by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, November 1975

UP UNTIL THE moment the temporary editor of this august journal telephoned to apprise me that he'd just been in a terrible automobile accident in ...

Roxy Music: Country Life/Brian Eno: Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)

Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, March 1976

WOMEN, ON ROXY MUSIC covers, are like plants: lush vegetation, only more so. Unlike the reclining femme fatale on the cover of Stranded, who I've ...

Eno: "Zing!" Go the Strings of My Art...

Interview by Miles, New Musical Express, 27 November 1976

...as Thin and Serious People gather to make music. The luscious but committed BRIAN ENO has been in recording with the skinny and deranged ...

The Brian Eno Interview

Interview by Caroline Coon, Ritz, 1977

TODAY, SITTING FOR this interview at a white, formica-topped table in his Maida Vale flat, Brian Eno looks clean-cut enough to pass for the most ...

Eno: Extra Natty Orations

Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 5 February 1977

"I was trying to think of some inventions, so I tried to think of what I needed. But I don't need anything. That's the difficulty, ...

Bowie Now: New Songs for Day and Night

Report and Interview by Wesley Strick, Circus, 28 February 1977

THESE ARE the facts:David Bowie's latest album, Low, is two-sided. Side One contains seven crypto-disco tracks, no track shorter than 1:42 or longer than 3:26. ...

Eno, Phil Manzanera et al.: 801 Live

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, June 1977

I'D WAGER that the market for import albums is sustained primarily by fanciers of various exotic genres (Kraut-rock, pub-rock, punk-rock, zen-rock, bla-bla-bla). Some of this ...

Eno Part 1: Before and After Science — Accidents Will Happen

Interview by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 26 November 1977

Thinking about music with BRIAN ENO. Some monologues recorded and compiled by IAN MacDONALD. ...

Eno Part 2: Another False World — How to Make A Modern Record

Interview by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 3 December 1977

Thinking about music with BRIAN ENO. Some more monologues recorded and compiled by IAN MacDONALD. ...

Brian Eno: Before and After Science

Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 10 December 1977

REACTIONS: 1) Am I happy or sad that other rock music has finally caught up with Eno? He has won his battle to make ...

Interview with Brian Eno

Interview by Mary Harron, Punk, Summer 1977

Brian Eno is sitting in Island Records’ Basing Street Studios, London, with a piece of toast in his hand. He is working on an album: ...

An Interview With Brian Eno

Interview by Kris Needs, Danny Baker, ZigZag, January 1978

YOU COULD SAY Brian Eno was pissed off on the day the dynamic Zigzag interviewing team were supposed to be interviewing him. Quite the opposite ...

Brian Eno: Before and after Science (Polydor 2302 071)

Review by Paul Rambali, Trouser Press, February 1978

IT APPEARS the grandiosely titled Before and After Science did not come easy to the erudite Mr. Eno. It was first scheduled some 10 months ...

Eno at the Edge of Rock

Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Interview, June 1978

BRIAN ENO was a founding member of ROXY MUSIC, the English band that more or less founded the Fine Art-Fashion-Rock and Roll fusion that continues ...

Talking Heads: More Songs About Buildings And Food (Sire)

Review by Ian Birch, Melody Maker, 15 July 1978

David Byrne (singing, guitars, synthesized percussion); Chris Frantz (drums, percussion); Jerry Harrison (piano, organs, synthesizer, guitar, background vocals); Tina Weymouth (bass) and Brian Eno (synthesizers, ...

Talking Heads: More words about Eno and art

Interview by Ian Birch, Melody Maker, 29 July 1978

Ian Birch meets Talking Heads ...

Brian Eno: Music For Films

Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 14 October 1978

"I'M NOT really interested in the quality of the film, what they furnish is an excuse to do some music...they're areas where I can experiment ...

Various Artists: No New York (Antilles Import)

Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 16 December 1978

I WAS wearing headphones. My teeth were aching again, and the lump behind my left ear was still as bad as ever. All 16 of ...

Oblique Strategies

Essay by Cynthia Rose, Harpers & Queen, 1979

Cynthia Rose looks at artist/musicians David Bowie, Brian Eno and Iggy Pop (touring Britain this month) and the risks they are taking with electronics, Expressionism ...

Crits fiddle while public burns...

Report by Richard Grabel, New Musical Express, 30 June 1979

Fripp, Eno and others debate the future of a species ...

Brian Eno: Mind Over Music

Profile and Interview by Michael Gross, Chic, July 1979

DURING THE YEAR prior to his first solo concert tour in 1975, Brian Eno's image alone sustained public interest in his career. ...

Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt: Oblique Strategies

Review by Howard Wuelfing, New York Rocker, August 1979

DON'T BE AFRAID OF CLICHÉS ...

The Concise NME Guide To Electronic Music & Synthesised Sound

Guide by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 5 January 1980

"Progress in the physical and mechanical sciences determines a progress in art." — Carlos Chavez, 1957 ...

Brian Eno: Energy Fails The Magician

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 12 January 1980

After spending the last decade redefining rock music, all Brian Eno wants now is an honest job of work and a place to lay his ...

Brian Eno: Into The Spirit World

Interview by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 26 July 1980

The White Man's Grave Look to Africa ...

Eno: Only The Small Survive

Interview by Dave Rimmer, The Face, October 1980

One of the vital musical innovators of the Seventies, Brian Eno now inhabits a curious world. He lives in 'medieval' Manhattan, where he gambles on ...

Talking Heads: Jive Talking

Interview by Richard Grabel, The Face, January 1981

David Byrne talks guardedly about his collaboration with Brian Eno. Tina Weymouth talks candidly on the same subject. "By the time they had finished working ...

Byrne's Eye Vew

Interview by David Hepworth, Smash Hits, 5 March 1981

Talking Heads is TV slang for people whose legs you never see. It's also the name of one of the finest groups in the world. ...

Eno: The Life of Brian in the Bush of Ghosts

Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 7 March 1981

BRIAN ENO, currently working on two new albums, is many things to a lot of men. ...

Brian Eno, David Byrne: My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts (Sire)

Review by Richard C. Walls, Creem, June 1981

"You see, the problem is that people, particularly people who write, assume that the meaning of a song is vested in the lyrics. To me ...

Eno: The Soul Inside The Shades

Interview by Richard Grabel, New Musical Express, 24 April 1982

Richard Grabel practises the pussyfoot with Brian Eno, the father of electronic pop. ...

Brian Eno: Only The Small Survive

Interview by Dave Rimmer, The Face, October 1982

One of the vital musical innovators of the Seventies, Brian Eno now inhabits a curious world. He lives in 'medieval' Manhattan, where he gambles on ...

The Life of Brian

Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 29 September 1984

Helen FitzGerald, the Emerald Isle's most astonishing export, gets all mysterious with ambient whizz-kid BRIAN ENO, who talks about life after the bush of ghosts, ...

Brian Eno: Music Without Compromise

Interview by John Hutchinson, Mix, February 1985

BRIAN ENO IS something of a paradox. He is at once associated with the avant-garde and an artist/producer who has actually had his share of ...

John Cage & Brian Eno: A Meeting of Sound Minds

Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Musician, September 1985

BRIAN ENO is waiting in the calm, green courtyard between his apartment and studio, just a short distance from London's trend-setting King's Road. Under the ...

Albums by Eno, Rosanne Cash et al

Review by Mary Harron, The Observer, 9 March 1986

BRIAN ENO: More Blank Than Frank (EG Records EGLP 65) ...

Brian Eno: More Blank Than Frank (Jem)

Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 5 June 1986

AFTER BRIAN Eno left Roxy Music in 1973, he made four prophetic rock albums that incorporated unbalanced rhythms, random synthesizer noises, minimalist drones and whimsical, ...

Daniel Lanois: The Producer as Conscience

Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Musician, December 1986

"THERE'S A lot of pollution out there," says Daniel Lanois, drinking tea in the gazebo of his Santa Monica hotel one September morning, before continuing ...

Brian Eno, Roger Eno, Harold Budd, Daniel Lanois: Music For Films (Land)

Review by Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 22 October 1988

LET'S NOT mince words; most of these ambienceurs are a fraud, trying to sell us insubstantial ideas that aren't worth listening to by simply turning ...

Brian Eno: Musical Revolutionary

Interview by Gene Santoro, Pulse!, March 1989

Stellar producer; influential recording artist; pioneering shaper of sound: BRIAN ENO is all of those things and more. ...

Man Out Of Time: Brian Eno

Interview by Don Watson, Spin, May 1989

"IS THIS 1962 OR 20 YEARS ON?" asked the sleeve notes of the first Roxy Music LP, the record that introduced Brian Eno to the ...

Daniel Lanois: Let the music speak

Interview by David Toop, The Times, 2 February 1990

David Toop meets Daniel Lanois, the hit producer of albums for U2, Peter Gabriel and Bob Dylan, now a performer himself on record and visiting ...

Back to the Future: Brian Eno

Interview by Robert Sandall, Q, November 1990

The teenage keyboard pioneer with the left-field dress sense evolved into the amiable egghead in the "gardening clothes". And in between – via the avant-garde, ...

Ambient: The Chill-Out Zone

Essay by David Toop, Mixmag, October 1992

Ambient music: not just a soundtrack for the chill-out room, more a sound of the future. David Toop gets deep. Very deep. ...

Taking Modern Culture By Strategy: Brian Eno

Essay by Mark Sinker, The Wire, October 1992

2005 note: It’s not a sensible criticism of a conjuror that his craft does not involve actual real magical powers. Eno is fascinated by the ...

Brian Eno

Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Details, November 1992

The godfather of art rock and ambience discusses his sex drive, U2's sense of humor, and the future of music as we know it. ...

Brian Eno: Towards An Understanding of Pop Past and Present

Interview by Andy Gill, Q, November 1993

IN THE BIG room at Peter Gabriel's Real World studio down in Box, Wiltshire, Brian Eno holds court at an informal workshop involving himself and ...

Hey, DJ — The chilled-out charms of ambient techno

Guide by Pat Blashill, Details, November 1993

RICHARD JAMES has seen the future and it's nothing special. In fact, it's nothing at all. Nothingness itself. Vast, blank wildernesses, majesticaly vague cityscapes, machines ...

Eno's No Bounds

Interview by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 26 November 1993

Brian Eno used to wear leopard skin and make the synthesised squeaks and honks for Roxy Music. Now he's the venerable intellectual of pop ...

Brian Eno: The Oblique Strategist

Interview by Andy Gill, MOJO, June 1995

You’d like your album smoothly airbrushed with the minimum fuss, and expertly streamlined to slot into a tidy marketing profile? Don’t phone Brian Eno then. ...

War Child

Report and Interview by Ian Watson, Melody Maker, 9 September 1995

IAN WATSON talks to the bands who are contributing to the Help album and how this project compares to pop's last major charity initiative, the ...

David Bowie & Brian Eno: The Outside Story

Interview by Mac Randall, Mark Rowland, Musician, November 1995

DAVID BOWIE AND BRIAN ENO EXPLAIN IT ALL FOR YOU — by Mark Rowland ...

Robert Wyatt: Invisible Jukebox

Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, December 1995

Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...

Brian Eno: A Year with Swollen Appendices (Faber & Faber)

Book Review by John L. Walters, The Wire, June 1996

NOTE: This is a "director's cut" version of John's review of Eno's book. ...

Best of All Possible Musics: Michael Brook and Loop Guru mess with Eno

Report and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Eye Weekly, 26 July 1996

IN THE WORLD of ambient music, Brian Eno is god, the all-knowing, all-powerful genius of the recording studio. So omnipotent is Eno that his disciples ...

Brian Eno Before And After Pop

Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 13 July 1997

BRIAN ENO has a theory. Actually, Eno has lots of theories — the 48-year-old, English-born musician probably leads the rock 'n' roll league in this ...

Brian Eno: The Drop

Review by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, August 1997

WHERE MOST folk in this business work on instinct, rarely pondering how to maximise their talent, supposing they have any, Eno is one of a ...

We Have Ways Of Making You Talk: Brian Eno

Interview by David Stubbs, Uncut, September 1997

...on Russia, Roxy and tennis players' bottoms ...

Brian Eno: To Infinity and Beyond

Interview by Andy Gill, MOJO, June 1998

THESE DAYS, you have to catch Brian Eno as and when you can. Always peripatetically inclined, he now spends even more time abroad — ...

Brian Eno: An Uncle, A Celebrity, A Masturbator

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, 'Ways of Hearing' , 2001

ON THE BACK cover of A Year with Swollen Appendices, Brian Eno's diary of 1995, he supplies a handy guide to some of the things ...

Brian Eno: "So Why Are We Doing This?"

Interview by Andy Gill, MOJO, May 2001

IT WOULD HAVE BEEN DIFFICULT, observing Brian Eno's early career as furnisher of funny noises to the original Roxy Music, to predict that three decades ...

Eno: The Man Who

Interview by Paul Morley, Uncut, August 2001

After he left Roxy Music in 1973, Brian Eno became a key figure in the development of electronic music – in the nineties, NME ...

Brian Eno: The Quiet Man Of Pop Rocks Out

Report and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 16 June 2005

Brian Eno, pioneer of gentle, ambient music, tells Robert Sandall why living in the country has made him want to get noisy. ...

Brian Eno: The Jon Wilde Interview

Interview by Jon Wilde, Uncut, August 2005

UNCUT: When did you first realise you were strange? ...

Brian Eno: The Big Chill

Essay by Michel Faber, The Guardian, 10 July 2006

GLEAMING METAL DOORS slide open noiselessly at the touch of a button, and I step into the secret subterranean studio of Brian Eno. The atmosphere ...

Brian Eno: Containing Spontaneity

Interview by Ken Scrudato, Filter, October 2006

NOT JUST a few otherwise sophisticated human beings would likely feel less uneasy naked and unarmed in Northern Afghanistan than present in a room when ...

Brian Eno

Interview by Mike Barnes, MOJO, March 2009

He was Roxy Music's synth-basher and the architect of ambient. Now outside-the-box boffin Brian Eno is working with U2 and Coldplay. "Producing is the best paid form ...

The Business is an Exciting Mess: Brian Eno and David Byrne

Interview by Edward Helmore, The Guardian, 27 March 2009

DAVID BYRNE IS sitting outside the ladies parlour, upstairs at the Tampa theatre, one of the most spectacular 1920s movie palaces in the US, in ...

Brian Eno: 'Lady Gaga's Meat Dress? I Did It First'

Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 22 November 2010

Fashion disasters, electronic music, even the Lib-Con coalition...The super-producer and former Roxy Music wizard saw it all coming ...

Brian Eno/Rick Holland: Drums Between The Bells

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, July 2011

IT'S HARD TO know what's more surprising: the fact a man approaching his mid-60s continues to release groundbreaking music in such quantities that this is ...

Brian Eno: "How can Alastair Campbell have a TV career?"

Profile and Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 16 May 2013

THE TOILETS OF the famous are centres of great significance. Liz Taylor was so used to guests snooping in hers, she filled the bathroom cabinet ...

Brian Eno: "When he sang, David Bowie became a different person"

Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 23 July 2016

BRIAN ENO is Britain's favourite cultural polymath. He contributed a chime for a clock that will ring once every 10,000 years. He wrote a soundtrack ...

Gaz Coombes: The World's Strongest Fan

Interview by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, July 2018

Ever been curious about what's pumping on Gaz Coombes' stereo? RC's Jamie Atkins was, so he headed to Oxfordshire to find out. ...

In the Hot Seat with Larry LeBlanc: Brian Eno, musician, artist, producer, thinker

Interview by Larry LeBlanc, Celebrity Access, July 2018

IT IS APPARENT that there's no measure in contemporary culture to absolutely gauge Brian Eno. His staggering command of several creative disciplines places him alongside ...

see also Roxy Music

see also Roger Eno

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